Ancient Egypt

Fun facts post

Ancient Egypt

The old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom is a period of time in the ancient history of Egypt which it spanned out from 2686 to 2181 BC. The “Old Kingdom” is also known as the “Age of the Pyramids” because this is the period where many pyramids were built. The Old Kingdom also marked high points of civilization in the Nile valley.

It consists of four major dynasties from the third to the sixth dynasty. Dynasty 3 began with king Netjerikhet  who is known as Djoser. During the period of Djoser numerous pyramids were built as pharanoic burial places. The oldest pyramid is the two step pyramid of Djoser. This pyramid was built at Saqqara about 2650_2625 BCE  by the famous architect of the ancient world, Imhotep. The material which was used for the pyramid was Native limestone.

Dynasty 4 was the period of Snefru who had three pyramids built in Meidum and Dahshur. The Great Pyramid of Giza belongs to his son Khufu.

During dynasty 5, six kings had sun temples in Abusir which were built in addition to their pyramids. The temples were built for worshiping purposes but also closely connected to the cult of the deceased. The sizes of the pyramids had decreased and become less significant during this period.

AT the end of the Old Kingdom which was Dynasty 6 the power of pharaoh weakened in favor of regional governors which no longer belonged to the royal family.

Art

For Egyptians, art was not meant for enjoyment but it played a role in Egyptian religion. It included paintings, sculptures in wood and stone. The primary principles of Egyptian art are frontality, composite, composition and scale. It is believed that when something/ someone was important, their sculptor would have to be bigger/larger than the rest. Frontality means that the art was directly viewed from the front. Because art  was used for functional purposes there was no tradition of individual artistic expression.

Different colors had different meanings, for example black meant goodness blue represents the sky and gold represents the sun.

They used copper tools for building the pyramids as well as for art purposes.

Food

The Egyptians ate milk and other dairy products, bread, wine, meat, fruits and also veggies. Bread was a very popular in Ancient Egypt. The bread was made out of grains such as wheat. They also added nuts, milk, salt and yeast to the bread dough. They drank beer along with the bread on the regular including young children.  Egyptian food was “incomplete”without the inclusion of poultry for example ducks and swans. All classes could afford to eat poultry products daily.

There are two more kingdoms in the Egyptian history but I chose one of those three since there is so much history when it comes to Egypt.